2016-2017 Master Reading List

Master Reading List 2016-2017

These are the books I’ve read (mostly listened to) over the past couple of years. I’m slowly going back and writing down my thoughts on them just to synthesize all the information. A lot of the Great Courses material is widely varied, and I’m doing my best to summarize that as well. I’ve bolded and highlighted my favorites and most life changing reads/listens.

Thoughts on Reading vs Listening

I’ve been mostly listening to books for a couple years, mostly because my alone time is usually walking the dog and commuting to work, which has been a walk or short bike ride for me since we moved to DC five years ago. I used to feel I needed to qualify that I had not really “read” a book but had “listened” to it, but stopped making as much of a distinction over time.

However, since going back to being an almost full time student, I do think there are some differences, for me at least, between reading a page and listening to information. I tend to hold onto information I’ve read on a page longer than information I’ve just heard.

Realizing I’m losing a lot of the information I’ve received from listening, I want to go back while things are still mostly fresh (I remember the key take aways from most of these reads) and attempt to write down my thoughts, synthesizing the information a bit more than I had when just listening.

I’m also interested in talking to more people about what I’ve been reading. Though I know most people won’t care, by at least putting something out there, I’m inviting conversations that might not otherwise take place.

Fiction, NonFiction, My General Interests

For a long time I’ve been primarily interested in history, political history, philosophy, mythology, business, and more recently math and technology. I’ve had no interest in fiction, and haven’t read fiction for quite a while. I believe I’m going to start back into fiction soon, maybe by the end of this year.

There is no fiction on this list.

The List

I’ll update the items on this list with links as I finish write ups. These are in no particular order, I had a list somewhere else and copied it and then added more recent  reads and things I missed from earlier. I’ll probably start with the bolded items and fill in the others.

  1. Phoenix Project
  2. Happiest Baby on the Block
  3. Understanding Democracy in America
  4. Industrial Revolution Great Courses
  5. America in the Gilded Age Great Courses
  6. Four Pillars of Investing
  7. Thinking About Capitalism Great Courses
  8. American Lion
  9. Religions of the Axial Age Great Courses
  10. Great Mythologies of the World Great Courses
  11. Turning Points in Middle Eastern History Great Courses
  12. Talent is Overrated
  13. His Excellency
  14. Disciplined Entrepreneurship
  15. Lean Startup
  16. Scrum
  17. The Hard Thing About Hard Things
  18. House of Morgan
  19. Cultures of the World, Using Cultural Intelligence To Adapt Great Courses
  20. The Great Degeneration
  21. Thinking Fast and Slow
  22. Cycles of American Political Thought Great Courses
  23. American Ideals – Founding a Republic of Virtue Great Courses
  24. SPQR
  25. The Warmth of Other Suns
  26. Slavery By Another Name
  27. William Shakespeare – Comedies, Histories, Tragedies Great Courses
  28. American Prometheus
  29. Before 1776: Life in the American Colonies Great Courses
  30. Bright Lines Eating
  31. Ready, Fire, Aim: 0 to 100 Million
  32. The Wordy Shipmates – Abandoned
  33. The Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents to the American Constitution Great Courses
  34. Freedom: The Philosophy of Liberation Great Courses
  35. The Hero with a Thousand Faces
  36. The Ascent of Money

Older:

  1. Andrew Carnegie
  2. Master of the Senate
  3. The Looming Tower
  4. Power Broker
  5. Team of Rivals
  6. My Year in Iraq
  7. My FBI
  8. At the Center of the Storm
  9. Against All Enemies
  10. Cyber War
  11. Bearing the Cross